The Next Chapter
by coldfusion9797
Summary: Emma and Regina acknowledge the direction their relationship is heading after seeing Henry through the worst of an illness together. Emma/Regina fluff.


**AN: I've never written femslash before, and this is ultra tame, but it's a start. I wanted to give it a go and Once Upon A Time seemed like an obvious choice, there are so many strong and interesting female characters to choose from. Enjoy :)**

If the thought first occurred to Emma it was probably in New York, witnessing Regina's devastation over yet another betrayal. The difference was that this time they were friends. This time Emma cared about Regina's feelings, and seeing her hurt, had hurt Emma too. Bone-deep and agonisingly.

Not that this idea was a thought as much as a feeling. They were both women who tried to act according to reason, not in response to their emotions, but some feelings couldn't be ignored, not when they felt so right.

Emma allowed a small smile to curl her lips as she gazed over at Regina, a fierce, proud and unrelenting woman, who had finally succumbed to the pull of sleep after so long awake.

Between them Henry slept peacefully now, his fever having broken hours ago. His illness was nothing sinister, no magic involved, just a common flu that anyone anywhere in the world could pick up.

They'd both fretted over him, unable to do much besides alleviate his symptoms with cool cloths and soothing words until the fever broke on it's own. Magic could heal injuries on the outside but not things on the inside. They'd been as helpless as anyone else.

It was here, in Henry's room in Regina's house, sitting in the dark at two in the morning, that Emma realised she was smiling because the two most important people in her life were close and safe.

Henry whimpered in his sleep, shifting slightly, probably as leftovers from fever dreams worked their way out of his exhausted mind.

The sound jolted Regina awake, her brown eyes flying open in search of danger. When they landed on Henry, Emma saw the memories of the last couple of days flash across Regina's face, and then the guilt that followed as she realised she'd fallen asleep, though that was quickly pushed aside too with concern for their sick son.

Emma laid a hand across Henry's forehead, his temperature was still slightly higher than usual, but much lower than it had been. She looked up meeting Regina's anxious gaze.

"He's fine," she said softly.

"Good," Regina nodded, obviously trying to hide how scared she'd been. Emma had been worried too and now that Henry was getting better she felt her guard dropping a little. Neither woman had to be uncompromisingly strong right now.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Regina answered, sitting up straighter and smoothing out her blouse.

"It's okay if you're not," Emma clarified, "I know I've been pretty worried."

"Henry's made of tough stuff, I knew he'd be fine."

Emma couldn't help the smirk that formed.

"Wonder where he gets that from?"

"He has two strong and competent mothers, it's only natural that he'd be the same."

"You forgot 'stubborn as hell'," Emma added.

"Well yes," Regina allowed with a smirk of her own, "that too."

Emma wasn't sure how much of the credit she could claim. Sure, she'd contributed the DNA but Regina had been the one to raise and nurture Henry into a boy who would stop at nothing to follow the path his heart told him was right. It was because Emma cared about Regina that she wanted her to recognise the incredible contribution she'd made.

"Seriously though Regina, Henry's the amazing person he is today because of you."

"Well I don't know about that," Regina replied, unnecessarily smoothing her hands over her skirt, apparently a little uncomfortable receiving the complement. Emma understood, it could be hard to accept other people's truths about you when you'd always seen yourself another way. When you thought you were unworthy.

"I do," Emma said with certainty. "Whatever you may or may not have done in the past, you always loved him."

"That much is true," Regina allowed, looking down at the sleeping boy lovingly. "I honestly don't know what I would've done without him. What I would've become. He's the only thing that kept my heart from being completely consumed by darkness."

"I know what you mean," Emma said, thinking of her anger over her parents lies and people's impossible expectations of her. "For a while there, he was all I had too." Regina watched her intently, listening carefully to everything she said, and there was more Emma wanted to say but opening up meant making herself vulnerable.

It was hard to take the leap, but she knew she had to be brave. Henry would want her to be, so for him she would be. But there was another side to it and that was that she trusted the person she wanted to be honest with. Regina was her friend now. She was someone Emma had grown to care deeply about. Someone Emma would be lost without.

"Well Swan, now you have me too."

Emma startled, her eyes snapped up to meet Regina's, who had stolen the words from her lips. Regina gazed at her with eyes full of warmth.

"Yeah," Emma smiled, almost shyly, before stretching her hand over Henry, slowly and surely in the muted light towards his other mother. Towards her best and truest friend.

Regina gave her a soft smile in return and took the offered hand without hesitation. The scene felt so natural, like the obvious next part in each of their stories. Stories that were now woven together as one. And if true love was unconditional, if it was putting another before yourself, only feeling at peace when you were together, well then that was very possibly what they had.


End file.
